disposal, and the terrible vengeance she had sometimes exacted
--reflecting, moreover, that men in the position of the marquis and the
doctor would not have come to attend this interview without some weighty
motive--the young lady paused for a moment before she plunged into the
strife.

But soon, the very presentiment of some vague danger, far from weakening
her, gave her new courage to brave the worst, to exaggerate, if that were
possible, the independence of her ideas, and uphold, come what might, the
determination that she was about to signify to the Princess de Saint
Dizier.




CHAPTER XL.

THE REVOLT.

"Madame," said the princess to Adrienne de Cardoville, in a cold, severe
tone, "I owe it to myself, as well as to these gentlemen, to
recapitulate, in a few words, the events that have taken place for some
time past. Six months ago, at the end of the mourning for your father,
you, being eighteen years old, asked for the management of your fortune,
and for emancipation from control. Unfortunately, I had the weakness to
consent. You quitted the house, and established yourself in the
extension, far from all superintendence. Then began a train of
expenditures, each one more extravagant than the last. Instead of being
satisfied with one or two waiting-women, taken from that class from which
they are generally selected, you chose governesses for lady-companions,